Dr. David B. Adams – Psychological Blog

Psychology of Injury, Pain, Anxiety and Depression

The Wise and Skillful: He has spinal stenosis and degenerative disc disease but tells everyone she has `herniated discs’ Why? “We retain data in areas in which we have strong interest and/or strong responsibility. We may know what constitutes a concerning temperature in a child without knowing the mechanism for fever. We may know that …

“What’s Happened?” Let’s focus upon the fifth of five factors that slow the mobilization process: 1. The preventability of the injury – “should not have happened” 2. The perception that care was not timely and/or competent – “their doctors” 3. The belief that employer and coworkers are indifferent – “never hear from them” 4. Being …

Religion: “2011 study (1) reports “that chronic pain is a devastating and widespread problem….a recent study of the American Institute of Medicine…chronic pain was found to affect at least 116 million American adults. …Two-thirds of the chronic pain sufferers experience moderate pain, while one-third experience severe pain (as rated on a 1-10 scale). The most …

Sleep: How do we deal with this low motivation example…he is late for most appointments, yet he insists that he very much wants to get back to work…what gives?” Dr. Adams replies: “Is this patient sleeping sufficiently? This can be critically important. Adults need 7-9 hours per day. Sleep debt is the effect of not …

“Self-Diagnosis: Trust the Patient” At times there appears to be a sprain-strain yearbook in which the subjective complaints of the patient are set aside. Only objective findings are pursued. In the absence of these objective findings, there is little if any credibility accorded to the patient’s fears that “something is really wrong, and they’re missing …